Horwath HTL advises IHG on Six Senses Acquisition

Date: February 22, 2019

InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) has announced the acquisition of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas for $300 million – a deal in which Horwath HTL played a key role by conducting due diligence of the company’s existing operated properties and pipeline projects, wellness offering and stand-alone spas.

The purchase bolsters IHG’s portfolio of luxury brands. The wellness- and sustainability-focused Six Senses currently manages 16 hotels and resorts around the world and has 18 additional signed management contracts at various stages of its pipeline. The company also has 50 more management contracts currently under negotiation. IHG has publicly stated that it wishes to grow Six Senses to 60 hotels within the next decade. Six Senses also operates 37 spas under the Six Senses and LivNordic (through Raison d’Etre) brands.

Keith Barr, IHG CEO, commented, “This acquisition will further round out our luxury offer. Six Senses’ attractive development pipeline provides us with a platform for high quality growth. With the power of the IHG enterprise, we believe we can expand Six Senses to more than 60 properties globally over the next decade. This acquisition continues the progress we’ve made against the strategic initiatives we outlined a year ago, which included a commitment to adding new brands in the fast-growing $60 billion luxury segment.”

Robert Hecker, Chairman of Horwath HTL said, “Our whole team did a really fantastic job, working diligently to assess the properties and projects involved and provide specialist advice to IHG to ensure they made a fully informed decision. Our global network capabilities were critical to the tasks involved, ultimately involving 17 of our offices across six continents”.

According to Ingo Schweder, Managing Director, Horwath HTL Health & Wellness, “With IHG’s acquisition of Six Senses, we see yet another major hospitality group making a large, strategic investment in wellness, signaling that wellness is not a fad but, in fact, the new reality and a necessary component of the hospitality business. People are becoming increasingly concerned about their health and well being and investing in themselves to ensure an optimal status of health whether at home or while traveling. This is the second time we have been appointed to analyze the purchase of a major wellness company, previously conducting the due diligence of Miraval for a former potential buyer. This highlights the strong attention that serious investors are currently paying to wellness businesses.”

Fabian Modena, Manager, Horwath HTL Health & Wellness, added, “As part of the due diligence we were asked to assess the overall business, its brand value, positioning and customer perception. We also benchmarked each of the spa properties in relation to their location, amenities, menu composition and financial performance. Due diligence was also conducted of Raison d’Etre and its spas. The purchase is very attractive for IHG as it gives the company a highly robust spa brand that it can now leverage in their other luxury hotel and resort properties.”

James Chappell, Global Business Director at Horwath HTL, further added, “This assignment had a very tight deadline, with the team having just one month to fully analyse 33 existing and pipeline properties in 26 countries as well as 19 existing and pipeline stand alone spas. The resulting acquisition, we believe, brings considerable new opportunities for growing the Six Senses brand as well as IHG’s overall growth strategy”.